Atlanta Braves Off-Day Chop: Majors and minors

A Wrap-up of recent action among all the Braves’ affiliates

Here’s a combination of an off-day Atlanta Braves news and minor league update for you:

GULF COAST LEAGUE

The Gulf Coast League game is very interesting today, with all of the following players in action:

• Micah Johnson:  played CF and went 1 for 2 with a walk in his 1st rehab game.
• Sean Rodriguez:  0 for 2 at shortstop.  He’s hitting .200 in 2 games.
• Kevin Maitan:  A walk and a single in 2 AB’s today – his first official professional game.  So no one has ever retired him.

GCL Braves are 2-4 thus far, though that’s still second place in their ‘Northeast’ division.  That’s tied with the Pirates, ahead of the Tigers, and behind the 5-1 Yankees.

As I write this, the Braves are behind 1-0 to the Phillies.

Update:  they put up a 3-spot in the bottom of the 7th to take a 3-1 lead.  They got a 4th run in the 8th, but the Phils tied it with 3 runs of their own in the 9th.

In the 10th, the Braves came from behind and walked it off with 2 more runs and a 6-5 victory!

Here’s that Maitan single – h/t to @ProspectsBraves:

APPY LEAGUE

Danville is certainly holding its own so far: 7-4 and in second place behind – yeah, the Yankees (8-3).

In just 29 AB, new draftee Drew Lugbauer has hit four homers, while sporting a .241 avg. and 1.023 OPS.

Derian Cruz is trying to get back on track:  he’s hitting .257 early on, but with a .333 OBP and .848 OPS.

19-year-old left-hander Dilmer Mejia has started very well.  In 3 appearances (10.2 innings), he’s got 14 strikeouts, 2 walks, a 0.l94 WHIP, and 2.53 ERA.

SALLY LEAGUE

The season’s second half is underway for all split-season leagues.  Rome is now 4-5 and in the middle of the Southern division pack.

They finished the first half at 38-32, good for third place, 3.5 games behind Greenville, with Tim Tebow’s Columbia Fireflies right on their heels.

Bryse Wilson leads their pitching staff with almost 80 innings, and he’s also keeping runners off base a lot, with a 1.07 WHIP, striking out nearly 1 per inning and walking just 21.  Those are solid numbers to go with a 2.82 ERA.

Joey Wentz and Ian Anderson are doing likewise, though with a few more walks – Anderson in particular:  34 in 65 innings and a 1.39 WHIP.

Rome has a bunch of hitters raking the ball well:  Randy Ventura, Cristian Pache, Juan Yepez, and Lucas Herbert are all hitting above .270, though no one on the club is OPS’ing over .800… save for Brett Cumberland and his 10 homers (.964 OPS).

FLORIDA STATE LEAGUE

The Fire Frogs scored a lot early on in their first half, but otherwise stumbled to a 25-41 last place finish, losing 3 straight to complete that portion of their schedule, worst in the entire league.

While they are now in 5th place to begin the second half, their 4-5 record is just 2 games out of first, so things are looking up a bit.

Tyler Neslony is the guy that few want up to overlook.  The 23-year-old right fielder is hitting .299 at the moment with 3 homers, 16 doubles and an .801 OPS.

This squad also has Alex Jackson (.274/.846 OPS, 13 2B, 10 HR), Austin Riley (.250/.715, 8 2B, 11 HR), and Braxton Davidson (.225/.703, 8 2B, 5 HR).

Catcher Brett Cumberland was recently promoted here, but is having trouble getting going:  .143 in 28 AB.

Ray-Patrick Didder is not having a good Summer… hitting .202 with 7 errors in the outfield.

Touki Toussaint is also struggling:  5.90 ERA with a 1.47 WHIP and walking almost 1 every other inning… though also K’ing 87 in 79 innings.  In fact, out of their rotation, only Luiz Gohara (now promoted) and Tyler Pike (2.20 ERA, 1.19 WHIP) were doing well at all.

SOUTHERN LEAGUE

After finishing the first half at 34-36 (3rd place), the second half is not being kind.  The MBraces have lost 5 in a row to fall to 3-7.

Ronald Acuna is the story of the year so far:  .317 with 11 2B, 1 3B, and 6 homers… OPS of .852.

Meanwhile, Travis Demeritte is  at .223 with 13 errors at 2nd.,, 11 homers, but OPS of .712.  Lots of strikeouts, but decent amount of walks.

3B Carlos Franco is hitting an OPS of .918 in 41 games (150 AB) with 11 homers and 45K/14BB.

The story at Mississippi is pitching with Mike Soroka and Kolby Allard both doing well – especially Soroka (2.23ERA, 89 innings with 72K and 19BB for a WHIP of 1.06).

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

Gwinnett doesn’t have a split season, but they are 9.5 games behind the Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay) with the identical 40-41 record that the parent club has.

Ozzie Albies is tearing it up lately, raising his average to .285.

Matt Wisler has a complete game shutout this weekend – a 3-hitter over 7 innings vs. Charlotte with just 2 strikeouts and no walks… his second scoreless outing in the past 3 trips to the mound.  He and Andrew Albers are throwing very well of late.

ANOTHER NOTE – DAN WINKLER

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Winkler must be activated … to the majors … by July 15th, or risk being lost back to the Rockies due to his Rule 5 status.

It looks like that’s on track, though he has yielded homers in each of his last 2 AAA appearances and he gave up 4 runs Saturday in just 1 inning.

Still, his rehab is working and his elbow is holding together, it seems.  2 more weeks should help the Braves see where he is with maybe 3-4 more outings before putting him back into Atlanta.